5 Ways AI Could Influence the Future of Recruitment

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Michael Klazema is the Chief Marketing Technologist at VODW and the lead author/editor for backgroundchecks.com. He has a two-decade background in background checking, HR, employee screening, and technology innovation.

Michael has led technology selection and implementation initiatives with a focus on achieving great alignment with online customer experiences and organizational structures. Michael holds an MBA in International Management from Maastricht University and has worked in the US, UK, Austria, Norway, and The Netherlands. He enjoys the rich culinary histories of various old and new world countries, using the cookbooks he and his family collect as souvenirs from their international adventures

Recruitment and Onboarding Tools - Usage Trends 2018-19

Artificial intelligence is changing every industry, and HR is no exception. AI technology is rapidly reshaping the way HR professionals and hiring managers screen candidates, manage the applicant experience, and handle the onboarding process. In 10 years, recruiting and hiring will likely look completely different than they do today.

Here are five ways AI could influence that sea change.

It will sharpen the job posting process

How do you ensure the right candidates see your company’s job postings? Artificial intelligence has the answer.

One option is predictive analytics. Software like tap recruit can peruse your job postings (and the job postings of competitors) and analyze them based on language patterns and structure. The findings will help companies write stronger job descriptions by identifying what differentiates underperforming job posts from successful ones. It will even flag any potentially biased language, promoting more diverse candidate pools.

Another option is data management processing (DMP), which uses cookies to track people who visit your careers page. Using this data, you can learn more about your candidate demographics and use platforms like Google Ads to target them—in other words; HR departments will borrow a move from marketing.

It will save hiring managers from having to sort through resumes

Automating menial tasks is going to be the priority for AI-enabled HR departments. Already, many businesses are using applicant tracking systems to scan resumes, identify keywords or phrases, and score resumes based on how well they match the “ideal” candidate profile.

It will make the video interview more crucial than ever before

In the past decade, we’ve seen a big increase in the number of companies that use video interviews in their hiring processes. As more companies adopt facial and speech recognition technology for this purpose, the video interview will become an even more crucial part of the narrative.

By monitoring speech patterns, facial tics, and body language, this technology will be able to measure personality traits, stress levels, confidence, and more. It will help root out dishonest candidates and find the ones whose personalities are the best match for company culture.

IT will usher candidates through the hiring process

Finding the right candidate for a position is difficult. Unfortunately, what hiring managers and HR managers often forget is being a candidate is difficult, too. Searching for a new job is no one’s idea of fun—especially when the process involves dealing with a noncommunicative employer. The candidate experience matters, especially in a job seekers’ market. Businesses need to make life easy for their applicants because if they don’t, they risk losing strong talent or developing a bad reputation among prospective applicants.

According to NBC News, today’s job seekers want the modern hiring process to be “more like a food delivery app.” That request looks silly on paper until you dig deeper: what job seekers want—reminders, text messages, intuitive online application systems, and notifications about whether they got the job—are all reasonable expectations for the candidate experience. Employers can use AI to meet these requests, whether by enabling website chatbots to answer candidate questions or by automating courtesy emails to candidates who have not been selected to proceed to later stages of the interview process.

It will help employers learn more about their candidates

We already mentioned using tracking cookies to identify job seeker demographics, but what if you could also incorporate that data into a candidate’s professional profile? Learning what an applicant is searching for online could help businesses identify skills or interests that might not necessarily come through in a resume, job application, or interview.

Many people apply for jobs—and continue to work jobs—that don’t necessarily match up with what they want to do. By providing employers with more details about prospective hires, AI could enable businesses to tweak jobs to fit talented people or recommend positions that might suit a person’s dearest interests.

There is a question about privacy here, and the HR industry will need to grapple with those implications if this technology becomes prominent. However, there is also an argument to be made that employers often take months or years to unlock the full potential of their employees simply because they don’t know what makes them tick. The use of AI technology could enable businesses to get more out of their hires from the beginning, and it could do it in a way that would also improve job fit and quality of life for job seekers and employees.

Conclusion

Some of these trends are already manifesting themselves in recruiting and hiring. Others are further off on the horizon. Only time will tell which of these ideas take hold and shape the future of HR. No matter what’s next, there is no doubt AI will play a role. The HR professionals and hiring managers who take advantage of these technologies first will be the ones to reap the highest dividends.